Nexus 5 photos appear in Russia

It would seem that the LG-made Nexus 5 is ready to launch in several European countries as it's appeared in Russia (today) as well as France and Italy over the past several days. What we're seeing today is a back view as well as a right-side view and a couple of front views of this soon-to-be-revealed machine, also known as one of the most leaked smartphones of the year, easily. Here we're finding a slightly modified smartphone lockscreen as well.

The LG Nexus 5 is made with the LG G2 as its base. This means that the folks at Google saw what LG did with the LG G2, liked where it was going, and decided to make with a new iteration of it with LG collaborating along the way. Here you'll see what appears to be an optical image stabilization-equipped back-facing camera, a single LED flash, and the word NEXUS appearing the same as it does on the ASUS-made Nexus 7 tablet.

The Nexus 5 also has a standard power button and volume button, unlike the original LG G2. The LG G2 works with a back-facing volume button and power button, both of which appear in SlashGear's full LG G2 review from last month. This Nexus 5 device also appears devoid of any front-facing physical or capacitive buttons just as the LG G2 and the Nexus 4 did before.

The LG Nexus 5 appears here from Russia (with love) from Anton Kuznetsov, a fellow who also appears to be quite proud of the images posted to the French site leaking photos just a few days ago. It's quite possible that Kuznetsov was the leakster providing images in that case as well. Certainly not out of the question provided the camera quality - even though both devices are not one in the same.

UPDATE: The original source has appeared - these images are actually coming from Kirill Karmazin, posting nearly anonymously to a Russian message board called VK.

While earlier leaks have shown a device with no NEXUS on the back and an earlier version of the software now known as Android 4.4 KitKat, this version seems to work with a final build. We're also seeing a standard microUSB charger here, though it's certainly possible that the photographer just happened to plug in whatever microUSB cord happened to be available.

Have a peek at the timeline below for other recent images and telling details on the Nexus 5, and expect it to appear sooner than later - Google has yet to confirm the existence of this device in kind.